Ocelote on Perkz: “He is a billion times better than I ever was.” – A complete transcript of the G2 press conference

After a 3-0 sweep in the EU LCS Summer Split Finals, the G2 team including their staff and owner Ocelote sat together to give an open-question press conference. Here’s the complete transcript.

Press: That final series ended quite quickly. Were you in a hurry today?

Perkz: Yeah. We usually go 3-1 because 3-0 is too boring but today we felt like going fast so we can go party in Paris.

The Shotcaller: You [Perkz] and Trick hold the record for being the only two players in EU who were able to win four splits in a row. A fantastic achievement. You have also been to the MSI finals. What more do you need to achieve to gain the status of the best European Midlaner of all time or are you already the best?

Perkz: I need to win Worlds. So, this year I’m aiming to win Worlds. We’ll see after that.

Press: Ocelote, I have noticed some similarities between your style and Perkz’s style, especially when it comes to interviews. Who is the father figure? Who learned from the other one?

Ocelote: He hasn’t learned it from me. He hasn’t. He is just like that by himself. I didn’t help and I didn’t train him to say these things [laughs]. It just happens to be like that. If you think about it, the way he plays Midlane, even though he is a billion times better than I ever was, you can see that the styles are pretty similar. Overextension, playing overly aggressive and what not. Nothing that can attach him to the character a little bit you know like it happened to me when the years went by. You get more and more context of the world and at the end of the day, you don’t lose the ambition but you kind of lean back a little bit.

But honestly, he has the best mindset he can have right now. He truly believes, and not only him but the rest of the team, that they can become the best players in the world. That’s what you need to do if you intend to ever get close to win Worlds or to do really, really well there. That’s truly required. You can’t be like “Oh, I’m not that good.”. You must have sort of an overconfidence.

Press: Who do you think will be the third European team to qualify for Worlds?

YoungBuck: Fnatic will face the winner of H2k versus Splyce and Fnatic will come out on top. I think they are too good all-around to lose to one of those teams in a best-of-five.

Press: Normally we see teams favoring red side because it allows them to counter pick. You guys pretty consistently went for the blue side when you got to choose. Why? What is the priority behind it?

YoungBuck: I think the blue side is better to choose if there are must-bans on the red side because it gives you a lot more room in the draft. We are not in a meta where we must ban Kalista and Jarvan or you will lose the game. Misfits demonstrated that in game one. So, when you choose the blue side you can set up a trade or get something for free. The last game we banned Gnar to first pick Cho’Gath so we would always have a free lane. It allows you to first pick a power pick and make other roles weaker.

Press: This one is directed to Zven: What is your secret to not die?

Zven: Honestly, I think it is really hard to die if you win your lane as an AD Carry right now. Everyone is clearing the tanks and not you. Also, there are so many tanks in the games. There aren’t as many Zeds or LeBlancs or Ekkos anymore. Most of the games you have a support like Morgana or even another tank to help you. It is very hard to die. There is no secret. But yeah, I’m insane.

Press: A lot of websites have reported that G2 Esports has applied for the new NA franchise system. Are the rumors true?

Ocelote: I cannot say whether that is true or not true because even if it is true, I would not be able to tell you whether it is true or not true. I can’t comment on that.

Press: Carlos, ever since you started this up there has been that drive to push G2 as a brand for everything. You guys just took it in Malmö as well. Literally just now, congratulations on that! How do you juggle that many franchises on top of League of Legends? How do you find the time for it?

Ocelote: I believe that success eventually comes after work has been put smartly and with proper intrinsic motivation on all the people that work including players and coaching staff. The way I like to manage the organization is to, first of all, give a lot of room to the coaching team and basically all the senior positions at G2, the executive team, and the managers. I give all of them a lot of room to improve themselves and make mistakes themselves but at the same time, I stay back providing vision to the company.

The only vision I provide to the company is very, very clear. Our mission statement is just: Remain ambitious. So, everything we do, no matter if you look at our graphics on Twitter, if you look at the way we engage on Facebook with any team, any player, basically everything that happens within the organization is meant to be utilizing this vision. Pure ambition. You can say, because it’s the truth, I did nothing today in either his victory or the other one in the other game. It is seriously just that the culture of the whole company is so much around ambition and victory and lack of contentment. Every time we win I guarantee you, this is kind on an unwritten rule, tomorrow people will wake up earlier. All the staff of G2 will wake up earlier because they don’t want to feel content. It’s the truth. I think that leads to more victories in the end.

Press: What makes you better than the other teams in the region?

YoungBuck: I think it starts off with Carlos building a really good roster especially after the first spring split. With that, we have so much individual power. Mithy and Zven have also brought a lot of macro elements to the team so now we have the individual power and that kind of macro play style which puts us ahead in every single aspect of the game.

Press: What do you think about your chances for Worlds this year?

Mithy: My goal is to make it out of groups. That would already be quite a difference compared to last year. We all will just work as hard as we usually do and try to make it out of groups and then see where it goes from there on. That is the same mindset we had for the MSI and it was a bit tough but it worked out quite well so with the same attitude and the same mindset we will do well at Worlds.

Press: In season three you arrived a bit later to Lemondogs and turned the whole team around with your strategic-genius mindset. You also arrived late to G2. How much could you actually contribute on a strategic macro level to make G2 a team as great as it is today?

Mithy: I think when I joined Lemondogs I was just ten times better than the other support that was on that team. The rest of the team was very talented and I just joined while I was pretty much the best support there so I think it just worked out well. I don’t think I had that strategic mind. The game League of Legends was just really new back then in terms of macro and there wasn’t much to think about. After I got banned I kind of changed my mind and changed my attitude towards how I play the game and tried to more reliable by thinking and playing less on instinct. Coming into G2 I think I had a big impact on how we play, how we do things. I put a little bit of myself in whatever we talk about and everything we do. We are very happy things are working out well. The way I’m approaching League and my life, in general, is good for me. I’m really happy with myself.

Press: I talked to YoungBuck the other day and he said that you had identified a different way of playing the current meta. Not just tanks, tanks, tanks. But he wouldn’t tell me what it was. If we don’t tell him, it’s just between you and me, would you tell us what it is?

Mithy: I have no clue what YoungBuck is talking about.

YoungBuck: I didn’t say that Mithy figured it out. We just had a different way of playing carry Toplaners with Galio Midlane. H2k banned it out. We wanted to show it against Misfits today but they also banned it out really wisely because we practiced it every single game against Misfits so… yeah.

Press: You used to be with Team SoloMid last year and Worlds didn’t go really well for them. What is the main difference between TSM last year and G2 this year?

Perkz: Say it, Weldon!

Zven: Yes, say it!

Weldon: I think the team’s shot-calling structure is different because a different role is calling the game and you have a different personality which the plays are made around. If you look at teams that shot-call from the certain role they all have a certain style. The choice of plays and the choice of team compositions that the team drafts and plays around is unique because of the hierarchy in the team. And that’s really the base difference. I don’t think there is a massive difference in skill level or even understanding of the game at this point. Then at Worlds the meta kind of normalizes across all the teams that are there so I think that will be quite similar as well.

Romain Bigeard joins the LEC Business Development team and will appear on the LEC broadcast in 2019

Poohmandu joins Misfits as Assistant Coach

Kold & Mithy officially join Origen

Nemesis has received the Finals MVP Award for the Iberian Cup

Alexander studied Media and Communication Management in Berlin and London with additional two years of legal studies in Osnabrück, Germany. The Shotcaller is his second esports related project after founding PENTA Sports in 2014.